The ScooterBlog

Something is happening to Office unless you use it for more then just a basic way to type a document … it’s becoming useless. Between this program and a couple of smaller online options, the need for Office isn’t what it used to be.

The major home project … OpenOffice may be the best freeware alternative to Microsoft Office to come along yet. With a good word processor, spreadsheet and presentation program and full compatibilty with Microsoft Office files, it’s a program you can jump to without having to sacrifice very much.

The small on-the-go writing … There are now online programs which can do the basic functions for you so that you don’t have to go spend big bucks on software. Zoho Writer and Writely are two online word processors currently in beta which offer most basic word processing features (and you can collaborate too!), and NumSum offers a simple online spreadsheet program, although it’s worth mentioning that NumSum does not offer private stored spresdsheets, so don’t expect great security with this program.

This is just a small sample of some of the things that are out there, but it’s showing one thing … these are the precursors to a day where there is less software on your PC and more on your web browser.

This is both a statement to how much extra crap I have had, and how easy it is to get rid of …

* Cancelled cable … this will end up only saving about $15 a month, the bill is split, but with me never being home enough to use it, why have cable service? There’s a one-room satellite setup where I’m living anyways, I’ll be just fine.

* Re-did my cell phone plan - T-Mobile just introduced a plan which saves me $35 a month, but makes me commit to a year. No problem, I like T-Mobile a lot.

* Cancelled GameFly and NetFlix - Awesome services but I have not been able to use them to their full capacity. I put my NetFlix on hold in order to avoid billing but keep the queue, and the GameFly holds your account for 6 months before a total deletion. I’ll re-up on these later when other expenses drop.

All in all, it’s $15 + $15 + $23 + $35 = $88 every month starting in February. Over three months, that’s $250 … could get me an iPod, or a nice addition to my other planned savings!